Marriage & The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is believed to decide today if they will hear a marriage equality case today and which cases they will hear if they do accept a case.

A couple of days ago the Advocate had an interesting article about what would happen if the court refuses to hear a case and let the low court rulings stand.

What If the Supreme Court Doesn't Take a Marriage Case?
Even if the Supreme Court justices don't take up any of the same-sex marriage case before them, marriage equality could be on its way to 65 million Americans.
By Matt Baume
September 9 2014

But what if the unthinkable actually happened, and the Supreme Court decided not to hear any of the marriage cases before it?

It's hard to imagine, but the court could choose to deny a writ of certiorari for the petitions currently pending and anticipated over the next few months. If it did so, the impact would be immediate and huge.
[…]
Of course, it's very unlikely that the Supreme Court would simply deny the marriage petitions out of hand. It's more likely that the justices would hold on to the petitions for a while before deciding which one — or ones — to take.

The first opportunity for them to make that decision is rapidly approaching: September 29 marks the court's first conference of the new session.

I wouldn't put it pass the conservative court to try to weasel out of having to rule on a topic that many of the Supreme Court Justices find repugnant.


Update 3:00 PM:

The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog just reported that,

The court on Wednesday listed gay marriage petitions from five states –  Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin – for consideration at its Sept. 29 private conference.  Officials in those states are asking the court to decide whether state bans on same-sex marriage are constitutional.

The justices use the September meeting to wade through stacks of appeals that pile up during the court’s three-month recess.  The court at some point after the conference is expected to add several of those cases to its docket for the term that begins Oct. 6.  Court watchers are eagerly awaiting word on whether one or more gay marriages cases will be among them.

The court is under no obligation to act right away.  It’s possible the court could take additional time to mull its options, particularly because of fast-moving developments in other gay-marriage litigation.